The mosaics reported to have been recently stolen from Syria may have been stolen last year, namely in March 2012, as they are already included in the INTERPOL database. Here some interesting information.

INTERPOL called “for vigilance on looting of ancient mosaics in Syria” on May 21st 2012. As David Meadows (rogueclassicis.com) points out none of the reports published last week about the stolen mosaics mention where or when these artefacts have been looted. He also refers to a Time magazine article, published last September, where it was suggested that antiquities were being sold to fund the rebels (“Syria’s Looted Past: How Ancient Artifacts Are Being Traded for Guns”). As Meadows writes: “That said, however, the clearly deliberate vagaries of the most recent announcement suggest that Syria’s ‘official’ channels are clearly playing up the looting aspect to gain political points in the Western media and as such, cause me to genuinely wonder who is doing the looting, the extent of it, and for what purposes. Indeed, in yesterday’s post we mentioned that many of the articles about this ‘Odyssey’ incident were accompanied by a photo of rebels sitting under a Roman mosaic”.